Cody Carlson likes to quip that he taught his old blue-line partner in the Juan de Fuca Minor Hockey Association, Tyson Barrie, “everything he knows.”
Both went in the first round of the 2006 Western Hockey League draft, Barrie 18th overall to the Kelowna Rockets and Carlson 21st overall to the Medicine Hat Tigers. Barrie, of course, became one of the better offensive blue-liners in the game and is in his 11th season in the NHL and now with the Nashville Predators. Carlson is also with a team named the Predators, only behind the bench, and has coached the Saanich team to the 2023 Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League final beginning tonight against the Oceanside Generals at Howie Meeker Arena in Parksville.
Different journeys. Different Predators. Carlson came to the Predators bench in the VIJHL after five seasons in the WHL with the Tigers, Regina Pats and Prince George Cougars and nine seasons of pro hockey in the ECHL with the Gwinnett/Atlanta Gladiators, San Francisco Bulls, Utah Grizzlies, Cincinnati Cyclones, Peiting EC of the German Oberliga, Strasbourg in France and the Braehead Clan and Dundee Stars of the British Premiership EIHL.
Head coach Carlson, and assistant coach and former Victoria Grizzlies BCHL blue-liner Sean Robertson, have the Predators in the VIJHL final in a whirlwind turnaround after Saanich missed the playoffs last season.
“We revamped the whole team,” said Carlson.
The 31-year-old took over the club partway through the 2021-22 season and this year made it his own. Nine years in pro hockey from Cincinnati to Germany will teach you a thing or two about the game.
“We believe in structure, speed and game discipline,” said Carlson.
He also harkens to his five years in the WHL playing with and against guys such as Barrie, Tyler Ennis, Jordan Eberle and Brett Connolly who went on to the NHL.
“I tell the players to show up every day like it’s your last day of junior hockey because it goes by so quickly,” said Carlson.
“Have a smile on your face and be excited to be at the rink.”
Which the Predators will certainly be tonight in the final after outlasting the defending-champion Peninsula Panthers 4-2 in games in the best-of-seven South Division opening-round playoff series and then beating the Victoria Cougars 4-2 in the South final.
The Saanich franchise has featured the likes of future NHLers Adam Cracknell and Matt Irwin. The franchise, then known as the Braves, ended a 22-year drought in 2018 by making the VIJHL final for the first time since 1996. They lost that year in seven games to Campbell River and will be looking to take that final step this year.
The North Division-champion Generals, meanwhile, will be looking to avenge their loss in six games last season to Peninsula in the 2022 VIJHL final. Oceanside, coached by former Cowichan Valley Capitals BCHL defenceman Dan Lemmon, swept the Port Alberni Bombers 4-0 in the opening round and then beat the Campbell River Storm 4-1 in the North final.
Oceanside is the winningest team this year in Junior B in the province at franchise-record 41-3-4 in the regular season and were the runaway winners of the Andy Hebenton Trophy, named after the former NHL Ironman record holder and Victoria pro-hockey great. The Generals boast four of the 11 players nominated for the 2022-23 Jamie Benn MVP Award, named after the Dallas Stars captain, Olympic gold medallist and VIJHL alumnus. They are Brady Van Herk, Brendan Carlson, Carter Johnson and Matthew Hutchison with Johnson named the league MVP. Van Herk and Carlson were also nominated for the Clayton Stoner Award for top VIJHL defenceman, named after the former NHL blue-liner from Port McNeill, and which went to Carlson.
The Generals brought a 27-game winning streak, the final 23 games of the regular season to set a league record and first four of the playoffs, entering the North final and are considered the heavy favourites, although the Predators took away points in three games this season against Oceanside.
“This series is going six or seven games,” predicted Saanich bench-boss Carlson.
The second game is Saturday evening at Pearkes Arena in Saanich, third game Sunday back in Parksville at Howie Meeker and fourth game next Tuesday at Pearkes.
The Generals and Predators are chasing the Brent Patterson Trophy. The late Patterson was a former VIJHL-champion Saanich player and league MVP who died after suffering chest pains during a game in the 1977 Fred Cyclone Taylor Cup B.C. championship tournament in Quesnel.
The winner between Oceanside and Saanich will represent the VIJHL at the 2023 Cyclone Taylor Cup B.C. Junior B championship tournament April 13-16 in Revelstoke against the champions from the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League, Pacific Junior Hockey League and the host Revelstoke Grizzlies.
